rongest
distaste for business and all the more bustling pursuits of life. These
idiosyncrasies met with no sympathy from either of his parents, whose
ambitious plans for his future career they threatened to disappoint.
When he was about fourteen, in the hope of changing the bent of his
mind, his father sent him to live with his agent at Amsterdam, where he
worked under a tutor for four or five years. Here he studied Bayle and
Voltaire, and became an ardent disciple of Rousseau. Here also he wrote
a long poem against commerce, which he produced as an exposition of his
opinions when, on his return to England, his father announced his
intention of placing him in a commercial house at Bordeaux. Against such
a destiny D'Israeli's mind strongly revolted; and he carried his poem,
with a letter earnestly appealing for advice and assistance, to Samuel
Johnson; but when he called again a week after to receive an answer, the
packet was returned unopened--the great Doctor was on his death-bed. He
also addressed a letter to Dr Vicesimus Knox, master of Tonbridge
Grammar School, begging to be received into his family, that he might
enjoy the benefit of his learning and experience. How this application
was answered we do not know. The evident firmness of his resolve,
however, was not without effect. His parents gave up their purpose for a
time. He was sent to travel in France, and allowed to occupy himself as
he wished; and he had the happiness of spending some months in Paris, in
the society of literary men, and devoted to the literary pursuits in
which he delighted.

In the beginning of 1788 he returned home, and in the next year he
attacked Peter Pindar (John Wolcot) in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ in a
poem in the manner of Pope, "On the Abuse of Satire." The authorship of
the poem was much debated, and it was attributed by some to William
Hayley, upon whom it was actually avenged, with characteristic
savageness, by its victim. It is greatly to Wolcot's credit that, on
learning his mistake, he sought the acquaintance of his young opponent,
whose friend he remained to the end of his life. Through the success of
this satire D'Israeli made the acquaintance of Henry James Pye, who
helped to persuade his father that it would be a mistake to force him
into a business career, and introduced him into literary circles.
D'Israeli dedicated his first book, _A Defence of Poetry_, to Pye in
1790. Henceforth his life was passed in the way he best